Octopussy

Udaipur is the city that does give me rest. A lovely town with beautiful palaces and lakes; in short, relaxing. In this city, especially in the palaces (which are nowadays mainly hotels) the James Bond movie 'Octopussy' was filmed. Every restaurant has its own television on its roof terrace (as a restaurant you do not count if you have not got a roof terrace here) and every evening the movie Octopussy is being broadcast. So, I spent an evening in front of the telly! Everything is so recognizable, it's really amusing.

No more exciting stories to tell from this end for the time being and I am quite pleased with that. I've rented a bike, this time a ladies' bike with a little basket on the handle-bar (yes, yes, my rucksack is in it; Bee One is on the front and there we go!) and I enjoyed cycling around. I first visited a park which was very pretty; for a change I got to see some green bits. My rest dis not last long, for after ten minutes the first Indian persons arrived (they are the rich Indians who are tourists in their own country), asking me could I please pose with them for a picture. OK, then. And there I went again; one family after the other came up to me! They think it is so wonderful. Children who have hardly recovered from seeing a 'white human being', are being lifted into my lap by forceful hands. I do my best to get these children to smile in the photographs, but I think they would rather cry instead!

At the next attraction I spotted a group of four girls. I met two of them in Jaipur, so I greeted them cheerfully. One of them looked up in surprise and the other one said, 'I was just thinking, a girl with a bee and a bike...'